Dr. Rahul Shah, of Premier Orthopedic Spine Associates, is a world class spine surgeon located in New Jersey. He completed his residency at Yale University and went on to complete his fellowship in complex spine and scoliosis surgery at University of California, San Francisco. He is also one of the leading minds at the forefront of the most current, minimally invasive spine surgery (MISS) techniques. As such, he was recently asked to present at the “12th Annual New York City Minimally Invasive Spine, Spinal Endoscopy, Robotics, and 3D Navigation Symposium Conference” hosted by Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center. While at the conference Dr. Shah presented a lecture and trained surgeons in minimally invasive cervical fusion techniques.

Traditionally, spine surgery has been done primarily as “open surgery”. This means that large incisions are made over the neck or back in order to access the spine and perform the recommended procedure. However, in recent years there has been a shift towards performing spine surgery through much more “minimally invasive” techniques. Innovation and technological advancements have allowed both neck and back conditions to be treated with minimally invasive surgical techniques. Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery (MISS) performs the same spine fusion as the traditional open technique, however smaller incisions are made instead of traditional larger one. Minimally invasive techniques result in reduced damage to the soft tissue surrounding the spine which in turn results in less pain, shorter hospital stays, less blood loss, and quicker recovery.